Wednesday, April 22, 2015

notes from day three

I thought the little grey baby might benefit from a goat coat, especially during yesterday's rainy, raw weather.
Here's a general thought:
no matter how much a person learns from books,
raising animals involves a lot of guesswork and gut feelings...
will such-and-such help? will it hinder?

You rarely get instant confirmation when you make
these judgement calls, but this time I had to laugh:
literally within seconds of donning her polarfleece coat,
the baby simply dropped over sideways
- on her sister - 
and was sound asleep.

Soooo warm!
 ~~~



Tsuga has phenomenal mothering skills.
She's not a fretful helicopter mum,
but she is aware of her kids
and communicates with them frequently.
In the barn, she even sweeps her feet along the ground
instead of picking them up and plunking them down;
a technique I recognize because I use it myself
when there are new babies underfoot.
~~~


Today while there was a little more sunlight,
I tried to get some pictures of the black kid.
She's pretty darned cute.


Don't you agree?

 ~~~


I had to spend a lot of time mending fences today,
but went and sat in the barn a couple of times for a break.
Tsuga is being very nice about sharing her kids with me,
but mostly she needs quiet time alone with them.
She doesn't want the other goats around yet, either.

This is all fine.

But it had meant a lot of rearranging of goats,
and hurried mending of winter-damaged fences.
There was a lot of excitement today when Vinca figured out
that she could slip through a tiny gap
into the pen with the big wethers and the matriarch doe.

Good gracious.

And then the boys found that tiny opening and made it BIG.
Instant Priority Task.

I did such an ugly job of temporarily patching the gap,
it is truly embarrassing.
It was, oh my gosh - you know what it was?
A stop-gap measure.

I just hope very much that when I go out in the morning,
all the goats will be where I left them tonight.
Especially Vinca!
~~~


Day Three:
a good day in the barn.
~~~~~

16 comments:

  1. Jealous - a VERY good day in the barn! XOXO

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  2. Ooh I would love to cuddle those babies!

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    Replies
    1. You have to be quick - they don't stay still for long :)

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  3. What an interesting post with sweet little babies. I love the coat story, sweet.
    Hope they all stayed in their own spaces during the night.

    Have a great day ~ FlowerLady

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  4. In the first photo, it looks like a sister moment, "What have you got on?"
    I hope you have in mind some day to write a book about your wonderful goats.

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  5. The babies are so cute and I loved the little goat coat. I'm sure that baby was all warm and snuggly.

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  6. Dumb question, Quinn...why did just the one baby need a jacket? Different thickness of coats on them? Just curious...thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Not dumb at all, but my answer might be: I don't know why one and not the other! I checked them both, but just had a feeling from watching their behavior that the grey kid was using more energy to keep warm than her sister was. She probably would have been "okay" without the coat, but with it, she had a little boost and could use her energy for other things, like digesting milk and growing.
      I've got the same little ragtag coats that I made several years ago, when they were REALLY needed and I was cutting and stitching them while sitting on the ground next to new babies. I don't always use coats, but every year I get them out just in case. And after, I wash them and fold them up and put them away, marveling at how tiny the kids were when they wore them - usually just a week or two earlier :)

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  7. Sweet, and love the coat. Makes sense to me. When there are twins, somebody's gotta get less of mama's warmth than the other, and lucky kid to have you watching over! :)

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  8. Quinn - one more dumb question...are these the only kids you are expecting this season?

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  9. Yep! In fact, the last planned for the foreseeable future. So we ALL want to enjoy these kids as much as possible :)

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  10. Oh....a goat coat! Good thing goats don't have sibling rivalry or little black goat would be so envious. Of course maybe she is and we don't know!

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    Replies
    1. No, I did offer her one, but she declined ;)

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  11. You really are in tune with your kids. That gray one looked so very happy to be warm and go straight to sleep!!!! She is incredibly beautiful. I love her markings. I assume that both have the same father (I seem to remember only one suitor for Tsuga)? It's interesting that they are such different colors.

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  12. So cute! And that is so precious about the little goat coat. You are so right about experience. I am very thankful for all the online resources and especially the experience of others, but there's nothing like one's own.

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